The Canadian VC

Seems to be coming ever closer. Thank goodness we have kept the medal.

A Victoria Cross medal has been produced in Canada for the first time and sources believe it will be presented by the Queen at a ceremony in April marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

The launch will not only restore the decoration to the top of Canada's military honours system, but also end a controversy that raged in the 1980s and 90s about whether an award of British origin had a place in Canada...

Military historian Jack Granatstein said the reinstatement of the VC is a step forward for Canada.

"There is clearly an attachment to the VC as a pretty scarce gallantry award," the former director-general of the Canadian War Museum said. "It will be a continuation of the past and it will be done in a Canadian context. I guess in a sense it's the capping of the Canadian honours system so I think it's a good thing."

Canadian officials are tight lipped about the plans for unveiling the VC.

Emmanuelle Sajous, deputy herald chancellor at Rideau Hall, confirmed that a VC of Canadian design has been cast but said it would be at least a couple of weeks before final decisions are made about how it will be presented to the public...

Sources believe...that the VC will be presented by the Queen to Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Vimy ceremony in France to recognize the gallantry of the Unknown Soldier whose remains are in a tomb adjacent to the National War Memorial in Ottawa...

The battle, which began April 9, 1917, marked the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps went into battle together. Canada suffered 10,000 casualties, 3,598 fatal. The ceremony this April will mark both the anniversary of the battle and the dedication of the newly restored Canadian National Vimy Memorial...

...The VC was shunned in 1972 when the government created a new Canadian honours system that neglected the fact that the country might be at war again. The new system included military honours for meritorious service and bravery but nothing specifically for rare instances of military valour.

Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau regularly dodged the question of whether the VC would be awarded again, saying only that Canadians should receive Canadian decorations. In 1987, former prime minister Brian Mulroney promised that the VC would become the cornerstone of Canada's military decorations. A committee struck by his government ignored the call, but a front-page story in The Globe and Mail in 1991 turned the tide by noting that Canadian troops sent to the Persian Gulf War were ineligible to receive the VC.

Later that year, a private member's bill received all-party support and in 1993 the Queen approved the establishment of a Canadian VC, along with the Star of Military Valour and the Medal of Military Valour. (These last two decorations, cast in 1993, were awarded for the first time last month to six Canada soldiers for their service in Afghanistan.)

The Canadian VC is awarded for "most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy." Canada does not have to be at war to acknowledge the existence of an enemy, which would allow it to be awarded for peacekeeping operations [surely what is meant is operations without a declared war, as Afstan clearly is not "peacekeeping" - MC]...